The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

1
The Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution

• The Liberal Democratic Republic

2
The Declarations Principles

• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
  all men are created equal, that they are endowed
  by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
  that among these are Life, Liberty, and the
  Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these
  rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
  deriving their just powers from the consent of
  the governedis equally endowed with unalienable
  Rights. Echoes of Hobbes and Locke
• America is an experiment in the implementation of
  modern political theory.
• Does government have a role in promoting virtue?
  
• Government exists to secure individual rights.
  DI is a statement of liberalism.

3
The Law as Median Strips

• Jeffersons formulation of the purpose of
  government in the DI can best be understood by
  thinking of law as a median strip on the highway.
  
• It provides the boundaries between men that
  allows them to pursue their happiness in whatever
  manner they choose. Instead of guiding men
  toward specific virtues, it only insures that
  they do not run into one another on the path they
  choose.

4
The Declarations Ambiguity

• While it makes it very clear the following
  principle that government exists to secure
  rights, the DI leaves unclear the form of
  government that will best accomplish this.
• Not necessarily democratic. Says only that, if
  democracy is chosen, it should be secure equal
  rights to all.
• Why might the democratic form of government not
  necessarily secure equal rights to all?

5
The Right of Dissolution

• Given the only legitimate purpose of government
  is to secure rights, Jefferson asserts a right of
  the people to alter or abolish any form of
  Government that has become destructive of these
  ends and a concurrent right to institute new
  Government, laying its foundation on such
  principles and organizing its powers in such
  form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
  their Safety and Happiness.

6
Prudence must Complement Principle

• Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
  long established should not be changed for light
  and transient causes.
• Why? Whats the argument here?
• DI is a revolutionary doctrine but it teaches
  some prudence in the attempt to implement its
  revolutionary tendencies. One should not change
  every government that violates in some small way
  peoples rights.
• Broader importance of point for conduct of
  political affairs, both internally and
  externally.

7
The Revolutionary World-Changing Effect of DI

• May it be to the world, what I believe it will
  be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but
  finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to
  burst the chains under which monkish ignorance
  and superstition had persuaded them to bind
  themselves, and to assume the blessings and
  security of self-government. That form which we
  have substituted, restores the free right to the
  unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of
  opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the
  rights of man. The general spread of the light
  of science has already laid open to every view
  the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has
  not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a
  favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride
  them legitimately, by the grace of God. These
  are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves,
  let the annual return of this day forever refresh
  our recollections of these rights, and an
  undiminished devotion to them.
• Is the DI universally true?

8
Same Question Informs Present

• There is a myth that though we love freedom,
  others dont that our attachment to freedom is a
  product of our culture that freedom, democracy,
  human rights, the rule of law are American
  values, or Western values that Afghan women were
  content under the lash of the Taliban that
  Saddam was somehow beloved by his people that
  Milosevic was Serbias savior. Members of
  Congress, ours are not Western values, they are
  the universal values of the human spirit.
• Is Blair right?

9
Is American pride rooted in the principles of the
DI or is it merely because its ours?

• Lincoln said the following of Henry Clay He
  loved his country partly because it was his own
  country, but mostly because it was a free
  country and he burned with a zeal for its
  advancement, prosperity, and glory, because he
  saw in such, the advancement, prosperity, and
  glory, of human liberty, human right, and human
  nature.

10
Should our foreign policy be informed by the
principles of the DI?

• Blair echoes Lincoln What you can bequeath to
  this anxious world is the light of liberty. That
  is what this struggle against terrorist groups or
  states is about. Were not fighting for
  domination. Were not fighting for an American
  world, though we want a world in which America is
  at ease. Were not fighting for Christianity,
  but against religious fanaticism of all kindsWe
  are fighting for the inalienable right of
  humankindblack or white, Christian or not, left,
  right or a million differentto be free, free to
  raise a family in love and hope, free to earn a
  living and be rewarded by your efforts, free not
  to bend your knee to any man in fear, free to be
  you so long as being you does not impair the
  freedom of others. Thats what were fighting
  for. And its a battle worth fighting.
• Is this what were fighting for?